NFL to the Eagles: Not So Fast

Chip Kelly's New High-Tempo Offense in Philadelphia May Face a Major Challenge: Referees

ENLARGE

Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly (in background watching quarterback Michael Vick) aims to run every play as quickly as possible with no huddles and no stoppages in play.
Associated Press

By

Kevin Clark

Updated July 30, 2013 1:40 p.m. ET

Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly has been plotting a football revolution since he was hired this winter to turn around the team's fortunes.

His plan is to continue the philosophy he perfected as the coach at Oregon: to run every play as quickly as possible with no huddles and no stoppages in play, all aimed at leaving the defense doubled over in exhaustion. This "up-tempo" strategy, already popular at the college level, looks like it could change the pro game forever. There is just one small problem standing in Kelly's way: referees.

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As Kelly mans his first full week of NFL training camp, installing a high-revving Ferrari engine into the Eagles' offense, league insiders say there are exactly zero indications NFL referees will be willing participants in the Kelly era. The NFL, they say, has a long-standing pace at which they do things between plays and the referees "aren't going to change just to accommodate someone's offense," said Mike Pereira, a former NFL vice president of officiating who is now an analyst for Fox Sports.

"We have to make sure teams understand that they don't control the tempo, our officials do," said NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino. "We're going through our normal ball mechanics; we aren't going to rush [unless] it's in the two minute drill."

Blandino said he has talked to every NFL team coaching staff during the off-season to emphasize that there is no forcing the issue—the offense won't be able to snap the ball until the referees signals they're ready.

Kelly declined to comment. An Eagles spokesman also declined to comment.

Blandino said the subject of up-tempo offenses and how they're officiated was a major point of discussion by the NFL's competition committee in recent months. Last season, after what Blandino said was a record for total plays from scrimmage per game, he said the committee felt compelled to "re-emphasize" that NFL rules differ dramatically from college.

At a clinic for NFL officials this off-season, Pereira said he saw league executives taking the next step, drilling the message into the heads of its assembled referees: No matter what, we're going to run at the same pace.

It is easy to see why the NFL might want to tap the brakes on these rampaging offenses. The league has long cherished the somewhat languorous breaks between plays, which are also attractive to broadcasters. There is also a safety concern: The more plays get run, the more tired players become and the more their technique suffers—increasing the risks of injury.

For Kelly, who went 46-7 at Oregon and appeared in a national-championship game, the college game was essentially a racetrack. Since referee guidelines were more lenient, Kelly's teams were consistently able to get officials to work more quickly, setting them up to make lightning-fast snaps. In one game measured by The Wall Street Journal, Kelly's Oregon offense averaged just 23.2 seconds between snaps, a pace 32% faster than the norm for college football.

In the NFL, however, referees are required to change balls when a play dies out of bounds or when there is an incomplete pass. That can add five to 10 seconds between plays. Another source of slowness: The referee who spots the ball in the NFL must be behind the deepest offensive back before the offense can snap the ball.

In at least one collegiate conference, the referee has to only be two steps away from the ball for the offense to snap it. The difference between these approaches can add up to 10 seconds in some instances.

The NFL's policy on substitutions won't help the Eagles, either. If an offensive team substitutes a player, Blandino said, it doesn't matter how quickly that player gets to the line of scrimmage—the defense will also be allowed to make its substitutions. NFL referees, he said, will go so far as standing over the ball to make sure the defenders have time to get in the game.

Pereira, who saw Kelly's offense in action when he briefly oversaw Pac-12 officials two years ago, said Kelly was a coach who lobbied for officials to be more mobile so they could run with the Ducks and get the ball down on the line of scrimmage more quickly, giving the team's center the chance to get a snap off just seconds later. "In the NFL, I don't see him having the juice to persuade crews to work faster," Pereira said. "In fact, I know he doesn't."

To understand the difference between what Kelly wants to bring to the NFL and what the NFL is used to, consider that 12.8% of NFL plays last season were run without a huddle. While that is nearly double what it was five years ago, it doesn't hold a candle to Kelly's Ducks teams. Those squads went without a huddle on 78.5% of plays last year. Eagles receiver Jason Avant said that in his time in the NFL he's come to realize that every NFL team runs the same plays with different names. "But not this offense," he said.

Blandino said that in his meeting with Philadelphia, Kelly didn't show any "overconcern" about these changes. "They had questions about what the parameters were going to be," Blandino said of the Eagles. "It's going to be different from college." Blandino said he didn't sense pushback from teams. He said he wanted every team aware of the mechanics that take place before a snap.

The NFL's version of an up-tempo offense—as tepid as it may be compared with college—has caught on with a handful of teams, most notably the New England Patriots, which ran 74.4 plays per game last season, the most by an NFL team in two decades. By all accounts, the Patriots wish they could go faster. "Tom [Brady] always wants to go faster and faster," said wide receiver Matthew Slater.

But even that pace has stirred up controversy in the NFL. Jets linebacker Calvin Pace called the Patriots' up-tempo offense "borderline illegal" and Jet coaches have publicly complained about the Patriots breaking substitution rules.

"Coach Kelly will not be playing as fast in Philadelphia as he did at Oregon," said Gerald Austin, a longtime NFL referee who now instructs officials and is an analyst for ESPN.

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